AFTER hectic efforts of the finance minister, we have succeeded in obtaining a paltry amount of $1 billion from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), equivalent to one week of import bill. It is not that if we had not received this loan, we would have been on the verge of imminent default. All other avenues would have closed, exchange rate would have crossed the Rs200 limit, and the sovereignty of state would have been at stake. We have a bit of a breathing space. That is it.

Under such a precarious situation, a practicable master plan is needed to prevent aforesaid crisis in the future. It is a fact that to earn money, efforts are needed, but to spend it judiciously we need prudent decisions. One such act is investment in the development of human resources, particularly in the field of information technology. This may be a panacea for all economic predicaments of unemployment, high cost of living and getting rid of dictation from IMF.

According to the Export Promotion Council of India, the country is set to achieve $650 billion export target in 2021-22. Out of this, $400bn will be merchandise export and $250bn will be services export, mainly IT export.

Taking into consideration the Indian population which is six times more than ours, the services export sector in Pakistan should be worth $25bn, whereas it is around $4bn. Now our commerce ministry has projected services export target of $7.5bn for 2021-22. Let us hope that we will get to that target ahead of times, and would then build on it to surmount greater heights.

Siddik S. Jaangda
Karachi

Published in Dawn, February 22nd, 2022